They call him the "Voice of Rock".; Real fans will know him from his '70s work with the English hard rock band Trapeze. Casual fans may know of him through his brief stints in the legendary metal bands Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. But the devoted Glenn Hughes fans will have stuck around long enough to savor his latest solo effort, 2006's Music For The Divine. Although not quite as strong as 2005's Soul Mover, this is still some of the best work of his career. Say what you will about Glenn Hughes, but he is certainly one of the more remarkable "voices of rock."

I was rather late in discovering the music of Glenn Hughes. Yeah, I knew he contributed some of the lead vocals on the Burn through Come Taste The Band era of Deep Purple, but that was really David Coverdale's gig. My older brother became a fan of Hughes' solo work during the early '90s. I got my first proper introduction to Hughes when my brother handed me his Burning Japan Live album of 1995. But it wasn't until after I had immersed myself into Soul Mover, as well as the two exceptional, soul-fueled, metal albums he did with Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi (The 1996 Dep Sessions and Fused), that I seriously became a fan.

On June 17, 2006, Hughes played his first solo gig in Australia at Sydney's famous music venue The Basement. This mostly acoustic performance had a very VH1 Storytellers kind of vibe to it;  Hughes introduced each song with a short comment or story. Joining Hughes onstage were his long-time guitarist JJ Marsh, on acoustic guitar, Lachlan Doley on keyboards, and the same four-piece string section that was featured prominently on the Music For The Divine album. Hughes played acoustic guitar and then switched to electric bass towards the end of the set.

I had no idea what to expect from this DVD, as I had not yet heard Music For The Divine, and had never seen Hughes perform in such an intimate acoustic setting. Well, it looks like the man can do it all, because this was one of the more soulful and moving performances I have seen in a while. Hughes' vocals were left raw and unprocessed in the mix, but he still sounded incredible. His voice has aged remarkably well over the years, maintaining the same power and range, but sounding even more finely tuned. Hughes favors his bluesy lower register a little more these days over the
trademark falsetto wails of his earlier years, but he can still deliver the goods when necessary.

The performance kicks off with "Coast to Coast," a song that goes all the way back to the 1972 Trapeze album You Are the Music, We're Just the Band. Hughes then moves up the timeline a few years to his debut solo album, 1977's Play Me Out, for a gorgeous update of the soulful ballad "I Found A Woman." This was the first time Hughes had ever performed the song live, and it should not be the last. From there, Hughes focuses mostly on songs from his two most recent solo albums, but he also revisits his Deep Purple roots, featuring three songs from their Come Taste The Band album.